sarah2438's reviews
1053 reviews

Too stinking cute. I've been feeling a little under the weather today, so I called out from work and just read this in bed with my cat. It was exactly the right medicine. It may be a little cheesy at times but it's just so sweet and cozy. Highly recommend when you just need a comfort read.
Also, yay for the 100th book of 2023!

I love Julia Whelan's narration on this audiobook but it feels like 3 star to me. I don't like teacher/ student relationships, even if everyone's saying it's okay because he's technically only a TA (who is teaching the whole class...) Aside from that, I'm not feeling and chemistry and I also think it's odd to introduce such a highstakes, important job and then never actually show her doing it.

As per my rule, any memoir that doesn't feel like 5 stars will not receive a rating. I don't want to rate someone's story unless it's phenomenal. I struggled with the bluntness of how graphic the abuse was, as well as the overtness of religion at the end. But it does present a lot of food for thought and is a worthwhile read. I had no idea this was the background of #metoo.

Cute. The ending left me with a lot of unanswered questions

Why doesn't Ben want to go home? Who are the travelers every year? What will their families do if they're actually going on this grand adventure around the earth?

  but I don't want to be super critical since this is technically a middle-grade book. The art was beautiful and it's just a nice story of friendship and adventure. I would like to see an adult version of this-- I think it could be darker and a little more twisted.

This one was fun! Not much of a mystery but the writing was good and I liked the creepy atmosphere. Pretty twisted. I'd recommend.

Umm this was stunning?? I loved it from the first page. Romance and mystery without being a romance or a mystery.

I'm starting to slump. I tried liking this because I loved Circe and I expected similar vibes, but the story just isn't working and I don't want to push through for 3 stars. It's boring and the characters are flat.

Knowing the origins of this story definitely tainted my view of it, but even if I try to put that aside, I didn't think this was that good of a book. It felt slow and overly saccharine. Sure there were a few cute moments but it felt overdone. I think that the story itself is 2.5 stars, but read on to see why I can't give it that rating.
This book is based on the Canadian Sixties Scoop. There is a very well written review from Goodreads that covers the issues in this book better than I can: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3601407534
But suffice to say, I cannot and will not support a cozy fantasy book inspired by the author learning about atrocities committed against Indigenous families. The Sixties Scoop involved the government stealing Indigenous children from their homes and putting them into residential schools, stripping them of their culture, and throwing them into environments ripe for physical abuse, sexual abuse, and even murder. I'm not exaggerating. So to take this and make it into a cozy little found family story where we just don't question HOW these children came to be "orphans" and everything's okay because their "master" loves them is just... beyond words. When you add in this context, Linus is not our hero. Linus is someone who keeps his head down and ignores the damage that results from his actions while still clapping himself on the back as a good guy.
I was adamantly opposed to reading this book and only caved because I joined a book club only to find out that this was their pick. But my digital copy was from Libby, and when I eventually picked it up as a physical copy, it was purchased used from a local bookstore. I did not want to give a single penny to the author, and I suggest you don't either.

August has been off to a rough start. As much as I want to plow through my TBR and get to 100 books for the year, I'm also just tired of reading books that I KNOW would be 3 stars for me. If I'm not loving it, I don't want it anymore. (Book club picks aside 🙃)

Okay so I liked it but I can't say that I'm dying to read the next one. If I already had it, I'd read it. But I think that by the time I got it, I'd have lost interest. So I probably won't be finishing this duology. I definitely attribute a lot of this to reading it as an audiobook-- I think that makes it harder to pick up on some of the nuance and emotion of the story.